Audit & Accounting

The Securities and Exchange Commission has passed along a request to the Financial Accounting Standards Board that it consider making changes in how to account for derivatives contracts designated as hedging instruments.

The American Institute of CPAs has written a letter to the leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee asking them to amend the Tax Code to allow estates and nongrantor trusts to fully deduct the cost of complying with the fiduciary duties of administering estates and trusts.

Kenneth Leventhal, CPA, founder of one of the largest CPA firms in the country, Leventhal & Co., and a noted philanthropist, died on May 8 at the age of 91.

Organizations worldwide lose an estimated 5 percent of their annual revenues to fraud, according to a new survey of Certified Fraud Examiners.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is making some progress in its efforts to inspect auditing firms in China.

Small business owners ranks Idaho and Texas as the most business-friendly states, with Oklahoma City and Dallas-Ft. Worth taking top honors among cities across the nation, according to a new survey.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges in an enforcement action against Deloitte’s affiliate in Shanghai, China, accusing the firm of violating U.S. securities laws by refusing to produce audit work paper documents.

Top 100 Firm Eide Bailly announced that nine staff members have been accepted into the partnership: Travis Burgess and Jodi Daugherty, in Boise, Idaho; Judy Vorndran and TJ Bert, in Golden, Colo.; Todd Harker, in Vail, Colo.; Sean Hales, in Phoenix; and Jenni Huotari, Chris Lee and Shelley Earsley, in Fargo.

The May edition of Accounting Today's monthly Accountants Confidence Index continues the expectation of expansion that started in April.

Check out the digital edition of the May 2012 issue of Accounting Today.